Google AdWords Adds a New Feature: The Drag-And-Drop Report Editor

This week Google began rolling out the Drag-And-Drop Report Editor functionality for AdWords, which will be incorporated into all accounts over the next few months.

This is a very welcome change for those folks who love pivot tables in Excel, but hate repeatedly pulling data when they just want to make a small tweak to a report.

For those less familiar with the features of Excel, a pivot table is a powerful way to organize rows of data. After this new feature is added to your account, Google will walk you through how to create a report the first time you click the Reports tab.

Whitepaper

Here are three great features that I love about this reporting update:

1. The Ability to Change Data Inputs Quickly

So often you will pull a report into Excel and then realize the data doesn’t exactly answer the question. Then you go back and pull a different set.

Each time, you have to pull down the report and recreate the pivot table. But this feature allows you to alter data inputs, date ranges, and so on very quickly.

2. Filter Functionality

Often you will want to view reports one layer at a time and then dive in. The Filter feature allows you to pull specific keywords or ad group level details.

3. Graphs

Data doesn’t mean much until it is put into a pretty graph. This feature actually does a nice job with only some basic charts and graphs. It allows you to visualize data quickly and pull it into a presentation, including schedules and email reports.

In order to meet the many needs of your clients, you may need to create a benchmark report. This requires pulling data across multiple clients, and using some of the functions for the Report Editor in the MCC could fascilitate this process.

3. Groupings

It would be great to quickly pull together various dates or branded terms versus non-branded terms. Maybe you only want to see quarters. Then you could expand the data within a specific quarter and just see those monthly views.

Data is the daily food, air, and water of a paid search manager, making this change is a welcomed one. The more quickly we can get to data, the faster we can make the necessary decisions that make our programs than better we are. I hope everyone finds this change as valuable as I do.

I’m also curious to know what other things people like about this update and what they want to see improved. Please share your thoughts in the comments.